The 'Ex' Factor

Prison. For me that word used to mean deep, deep shame. It was so unmentionable that it took me three and a half years to admit and accept that I am an ex-con. Now I can look at the word and say it out loud and really see those first two letters--ex. It used to sound like an axe cutting through the wind. I remember ex-husbands, ex-jobs, excesses--all fearful, angry, disappointing things. Always painful.